Alabama lawmakers advanced a ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill and legislation that would criminalise gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth. (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty)
Alabama lawmakers have passed a controversial bill that started as a trans bathroom ban and turned into a ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill.
House Bill 322 (HB 322) – which has been dubbed by LGBT+ advocates as a ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill – originally started as legislation that would ban trans K-12 students from using multi-person bathrooms, changing rooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
But then Republican lawmakers amended the bill to also ban classroom discussions on gender identity or sexual orientation from kindergarten through fifth grade or in a “manner that is not age-appropriate”.
The Alabama bill goes further than Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which prevents discussions on LGBT+ issues between kindergarten and third grade. Any discussion on LGBT+ topics in older grades in Florida classrooms must be “age appropriate”.
The Alabama Senate approved the legislation on Thursday (7 April) with a 26-5 vote. It also advanced through the state’s House of Representatives on the same day with a 70 to 26 vote.
Carmarion D Anderson-Harvey, the Human Rights Campaign Alabama state director, condemned anti-LGBT+ lawmakers for using the last “precious minutes” of the “final hours of the legislation” to “rush legislative attacks on our most vulnerable”.
“These are not attempts to legislate against any sort of problem, these are attempts to exploit divisive political issues for political gain amongst their radical base at the expense of kids who are simply trying to navigate their adolescence,” Anderson-Harvey said.
She added that anti-LGBT+ legislation – like the ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill – “discriminate against and deny transgender students the fundamental dignity of being able to use the bathroom without being targeted or humiliated”.
“Transgender youth have a right to an education, and not being able to use the bathroom safely at school abridges that right,” Anderson-Harvey said.
Just a few hours later, the Alabama state legislature also passed a bill that would criminalise healthcare providers offering gender-affirming care to trans youth.
Senate Bill 184 (SB 184) would make it a felony for anyone to provide gender-affirming care – including puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries – to anyone under the age of 18.
Anyone convicted under the proposed legislation could face up to 10 years in prison and a steep $15,000 fine, ABC News reported.
Sam Ames, director of advocacy and government affairs for LGBT+ suicide prevention group the Trevor Project, also slammed Alabama lawmakers for pushing the “most extreme anti-transgender agenda we’ve seen to date – all within a matter of hours”.
“These policies are not only cruel and unnecessary, they are unpopular among a majority of Americans,” Ames continued.
“Criminalising doctors, isolating trans youth from their support systems and stigmatising conversations around LGBTQ identity will only fuel more bullying, anxiety and suicide risk among these youth.”
Both bills now go to Republican governor Kay Ivey to veto or sign into law.
Ivey has not commented publicly on whether she would sign the ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill or the trans healthcare ban bill. But she did sign a measure last year that bans trans students from playing on girls’ and women’s school sports teams.